Tag Archives: Debby H

A report from north London

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We’ve heard from Debby H in North London whose sent us an update of some pictures from her garden. The first is of her pear tree (above) and as she said, “It seems that the winter wash has worked this year.”

Below is the salix flamingo tree, which is now budding after she thought it was dead and it’s great to see it’s back to life.

As she mentioned in her last post here, here’s the dwarf sunflowers (below) that are looking well healthy.

And below the peonies that are starting to grow. Thanks Debby, the garden is definately bursting into life!

A report from north of the river

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Cheers to Debby H for getting in touch and for letting us know that things are starting to hot up in the garden. “We have germinated about 30 dwarf sunflowers which will need to be potted soon. Also, our tomato plants have finally started to shoot.” Brilliant.

“The cosmos are ready to be planted in pots and put in the cold frame. We have already put some in our plastic greenhouse. We are going to see which environment they prefer.” Great stuff! Please let us know the outcome of that Debby.

She also mentions a plant we have never heard of before (pic above). “Last year our neighbours gave us some plants that we think are called Doronicum. We had seen them giving a good display in our neighbours’ garden and praised them, so they gave us some which we planted last autumn. They are all now beginning to flower. Lots of buds there.” They look a lovely flower!

We look forward to more reports Debby!

A report from north London

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If you remember, last month Debby H in north London let us know that the early sowing of her cosmos seeds had germinated (here).  She very kindly sent us a picture of how they are getting on now and look how healthy they look! “We will put some in a flowerpot soon and put it in the plastic green house.” Great stuff! We still haven’t sown ours yet and will have to do so soon.

So also sent us a great picture of some daffodils growing on an area of council-owned land, down the middle of a road near where she lives. Impressive or what? Thanks Debby and let’s hope spring is around the corner.

Damping off and fungus gnats please stay away

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Thanks to Debby H who got in touch again to let us know that the cosmos seeds she put in a few days ago are now germinating (above). We will now experiment and start ours off, if we can find space on the windowsills. Cheers Debby, do keep us updated.

We can’t help being a bit paranoid with our chilli seeds (Prairie Fire Mini Bush Chilli Pepper and Lemon Drop Hot Citrus Pepper) below, we sowed on January 10th (post here). If you remember a few years ago we started some off and then we lost most of them to the dreaded damping off.

So, this year we spent a bit more on seed compost and took the lid off the propagator as soon as the seeds germinated. We’ve now moved them to the kitchen windowsill and keep checking the compost so we’re not overwatering them but they don’t seem to have grown much since January 30th (here). Have we just got a case of DOP (damping off paranoia)?

The moneymaker tomato seeds have germinated, and we’ve taken the plastic freezer bag off them. As long as those black fungus gnats stay away we should be alright! We’re taking advice from Gardener’s World: “Control them by allowing soil to dry out between waterings, using yellow sticky traps, and placing sand on the soil surface.

A canna lily in north London

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Thanks to Debby H for getting in touch with a great picture of her canna lily and don’t it look grand!
She also let us know that she sowed the first of her cosmos seeds a couple of days ago and she’ll let us know when they start showing up. As she said “It’s a bit early to sow them, but it’s an experiment!” We are always up for gardening experiments here. Saying that most of our gardening experiences are experiments.

The first daffs in north London

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Cheers to Debby H for getting in touch again, with a picture of the first daffodil “about to flower in a front garden along my road”. Wow they are early! Cheers again Debby.

Any more pictures of flowers that shouldn’t be flowering? If so send us some pictures to onedeckpete at gee male dot com.

Out with the fleece, newspapers and net curtains please

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Thanks to Debby H for the reminder to get the frost protection out this weekend as we’re in for a touch for frost. It’ll be wise to cover those plants that aren’t hardy or for those that think that spring has arrived what with this mild weather we’ve had of late.

Net curtains, horticultural fleece, plastic buckets or even newspapers can be used. Ideally, there should be some space between the plant and the outer protection, which can be as simple as a tent-like structure made from bamboo canes. That said, here are a few classic frost-protection contraptions we’ve used over the years. They don’t have to be smart, they just have to work! Send us your frost protections pictures, the more unusual the better.

More geranium business

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We heard from our friend in north London, Debby H who sent us an email and photograph prompted by our last post about Adrienne’s pink geranium.

Debby wrote: “Our geranium is really a house plant, but it survives outside all year in a pot tucked in a crevice by our front door, to protect it from the worst of the elements. When the weather temperature falls to 1 degree or lower, we cover it with a garden fleece bag. In doing this we are as careful as possible, but we accidentally knocked off its only flower. This was sad, but we have brought it indoors to bring us some Christmas cheer”.

And it looks great Debby! I wonder if the stalk may grow roots and could be plonked into some potting compost and then there’s another geranium to add to the collection.

Cheers for that Debby and have a great Xmas and new year!

A cosmos a month before christmas

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A big thanks to our good friend Rich R up in the Lake District for sending over the photograph of his cosmos (and a shout to Debby H too, as the seeds came from her plants). Rich writes, “Really cold here today, wind chill feels like 2°C. With hard frosts and snow on the way, I thought I’d better send you this pic of the cosmos before it’s too late.”

Brilliant stuff, Rich – thanks again (and to Debby H) for sharing!

Cosmos and reggae make Saturday night alright

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Big thanks to Debby H for sending us a great picture today (above) of possibly the last cosmos of the year in her garden. She said, “If the weather brightens up later on, I will go out and deadhead them, then maybe they will keep on flowering.” Great stuff! We hope they do keep flowering.

Now we love the cosmos, we can’t stop seeing them about. Here’s one spotted on our early morning travels in SE23 this week, they’re a bit blurred but you’ll get the gist.

And a few doors down we saw a nice raised (vegetable) bed with some trellis used as a squirrel, pigeon and general pest deterrent, what a clever idea.

And from gardening we move onto the subject of music which goes hand in hand here on Weeds. We heard Skinshape x Horus – N’Téro (feat. Modou Toure) on last week’s Ross Allen NTS show here and it’s a lovely slice of reggae! Catchy as anything too.

 

Here’s a nice bit of dub called Order Dub for a Saturday night off the Self-Titled EP from Nadia McAnuff & The Ligerians from SoulNurse Records out of Tours, France from the golden year of 2022. It’s a subtle bit of mixing but lots going on if that makes sense.

 

And we just found by pure chance now on Bandcamp a do over of a version of Dennis Walks‘ Heat Don’t Leap by the one and only Gregory Isaacs called Gone is the Love from a good few years ago. Great tune!

And funny enough there was a few cuts of the original “Heart Don’t Leap” and more great tunes on On The Wire the other week. Listen in here!

Do you reckon the weather will hold out for gardening tomorrow? It was perfect here this morning and afternoon. Fingers crossed!